Landor | Cardiovascular | Boehringer Ingelheim

Project Description

AMBITION

Boehringer Ingelheim had an important presence within the cardiovascular market with their angiotensin II antagonist brand Micardis. An opportunity presented itself when new data that would potentially broaden the Micardis remit to include cardiovascular protection was planned for publication. This would be a first to market opportunity for Telmisartan. However simply having access to promising new data does not always deliver automatic brand growth. The cardiovascular market is complex and imperfect information often dominates. In developing the approach to Landor’s pitch the role of brand, clarity and competitive positioning was stressed. In winning the account we had a major opportunity to re-evaluate the cardiovascular market dynamics, understand the heuristics of prescribing and uncover the most pressing issues that drove prescription choice in both hypertension and cardiovascular at-risk patients.

JOURNEY

Our role spanned management and stakeholder interviews, in depth prescriber and patient research, brand equity analysis and brand re-positioning. Our findings uncovered important brand level insights that would help drive new prescribing opportunities for Micardis. It also revealed inconsistencies in the assumptions made regarding prescriber knowledge and expertise within cardiovascular pharmacology. Both of these were to have a fundamental influence on the strategic approach towards the sector and of the marketing and positioning of Micardis.

IMPACT

Through our work with Boehringer, we had uncovered substantial insights that had given the Micardis team powerful new strategic direction for the brand. Our work had shown that fundamental assumptions about the market were not always accurate and often hidden within the professional practice assumptions. By the end of the project, we were able to provide added value to physicians within their prescribing approach and patient care knowledge and in turn enhance the perceived equities and role of Micardis within the category.